By PHUONG CAT LE, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, November 27, 2006

For cell phone users, switching cellular services often meant junking the old phone and buying a new one. And using your cell phone overseas meant racking up hefty international roaming charges because there wasn't an easy way to switch to a local network abroad.

That's because many cellular companies set software locks to control access to their phones, often preventing users from taking that device and using it on a competitor's network.

But a ruling by the U.S. Copyright Office that went into effect Monday now allows cell phone users to legally break the software "lock" placed on their cell phones and move their phones from one carrier to another.

The ruling doesn't prevent cellular companies from locking a phone, but if a consumer unlocks it he wouldn't be in violation of copyright infringement rules, said Jennifer Granick, executive director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.

"It's great for consumers," said Granick, who argued in support of the exemption.

In its ruling, announced as part of regular revisions to technology-related copyright law, the Copyright Office found that the software locks restrict the owner's use of a cell phone to "support a business model rather than protect access to a copyrighted work itself." The new exemption to the copyright law expires in three years.

Unlocking a phone requires entering codes or a special set of numbers, which a cellular company may or may not share with the user. Verizon Wireless doesn't lock its cell phones. T-Mobile will unlock a customer's phone 90 days after fulfillment of the contract. Sprint won't unlock phones because it believes customers already benefit from a Sprint-subsidized phones, said Travis Sowders, a spokesman for Sprint Nextel. Cingular will do it upon request but only when a contract expires or under specific conditions, said Mike Broom, a Cingular spokesman.

The cell phones are designed for use on a carrier's network, said Broom.

"They're locked to control theft, prevent fraud and allow us to subsidize phone prices for customers."

He also noted that many customers don't want to hang on to an old phone for years.

Danae Barrett, of Federal Way, saw the ruling as a boon to cell phone customers.

"Carriers don't want phones to be unlocked, because they want you to stay with them," said Barrett, a trainer in the retail industry. "When you have a phone unlocked, it allows you to change carriers as fast as you change your socks."

Barrett, 37, recently took an unlocked phone with her on a two-week trip to France. While in Europe, she bought a special pre-paid SIM card and slipped it into her phone, allowing her to talk on the local European phone network without incurring roaming fees.

"It's in favor of consumers to be able to unlock the phone," Barrett said. But she sees the cellular companies' point of view as well, because she likes getting new devices at a subsidized cost.

David Rowell, who runs The Travel Insider Web site and unlocks phones for clients, said not all phones can be unlocked, and you don't necessarily need to do so with all phones.

Unlocking phones typically benefits people who are on the globally dominant technology GSM, or Global System for Mobile. Like Barrett, users of GSM phones can take their phones overseas, swap out the SIM card to a local carrier and pay cheaper rates for those calls.

"If you can persuade the wireless carrier to give you the code, it's simple and you key it in," he said.

Otherwise, there are numerous unlocking services that charge between $5 to $35. Check your policy, though because doing so may invalidate your warranty.

CTIA-The Wireless Association opposed the exemption. But Joe Farren, a spokesman for CTIA, said he couldn't comment until his group had reviewed the ruling more closely.

Granick represented Wireless Alliance, a group that sells new, used and refurbished cell phones.

"For them, being able to unlock the cell phones is really important," she said. "It enables them to put a lot more cell phones back on the used market. That means that many fewer cell phones that go into the garbage."